


A song for you

by blue_nebulae



Series: Arya x Gendry Week 2019 [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Aliases, Alter Egos, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Artists, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Music, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Artists, Arya is a singer, Band Fic, Day 4, Duet, F/M, Gendry is a guitarrist, Gendry musician, Gendrya - Freeform, Inspired by Music, Longing, Modern Era, Music Studio, Musicians, Reunion, Romance, Song Lyrics, Song writing, Tour, Touring, axgweek, composer, record artists, record producer, rock - Freeform, singers - Freeform, vocalist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 12:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20228032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_nebulae/pseuds/blue_nebulae
Summary: Written for Arya x Gendry Week Day 3 : "Reunion".Her voice was what kept him company on lonely nights while he was on tour. He had tracked every single one of her singles, each one by one of her different aliases. They were all different, sometimes the voice was distorted or had an effect, the lyrics were always about different topics depending on her aliases.She had been Arya Stark when she used to sing with her father as a little girl, appearing on his records before he passed away, that was how Gendry met her.





	A song for you

Her voice was what kept him company on lonely nights while he was on tour. He had tracked every single one of her singles, each one by one of her different aliases. They were all different, sometimes the voice was distorted or had an effect, the lyrics were always about different topics depending on her aliases.

She had been Arya Stark when she used to sing with her father as a little girl, appearing on his records before he passed away, that was how he met her. His father recognized the talent in her vocals and made the world know about her.

He had been listening to a bravosi radio station when he heard her, singing about missing the snow and he was completely sure it was her. A voice he hadn’t heard in years but then he found out the song was from an artist named Cat of the Canals. He started looking for songs from that artist and only found an EP from her.

He became obsessed looking for her.

The he discovered Nan and confirmed everything. Nan sang about old tale folks of the north; it was full of nostalgia sang a young voice who had suffered so much. It was the same voice as Cat of the Canals, and he knew it was Arya because her beloved pet was called Nymeria and Nan was the nickname Arya used on her husky.

Soon after The Ghost of Harrenhal released an ep, who had so much anger. Her riffs were hard and her voice scratchy singing about the fucked up world. Those songs were so angry and depressing, they made his heart bleed trying to imagine all she had been through.

All of her songs were hits in the indie music scene. Each one of her personas had a fan base, wondering who was that girl whose voice was like a siren. Some people figured that all of the songs came from the alter egos from an artist, many thought she was a pop singer in public or an actress. They weren’t far from the truth, she was the daughter of a rock legend and people had tried to make her a pop singer like her sister when she was younger.

She appeared sporadically as an underground artist. Never a live show as her own persona, never a live show under her stage names. The only times she had showed up she was wearing a mask and was part of group called The Faceless Men. She had used a stage name too while she was part of the group, she was a vocalist and guitarist called No One, the bassist was a man called Jaqen and girl called the Waif who played the drums. Their songs were dark, revolving about a god who took names, about people who changed their faces and about death. They were a good band, a grunge band but he didn’t really like them because they played with no emotion, as if they were trying to part themselves from everything by wearing those weird masks.

Her last release had been a year ago, the longest time she had spent without releasing a song. After the faceless men disbanded she had disappeared from the music scene all together.

He knew she hadn’t returned home because he had spent a while in Winterfell recording his first solo album, at Stark Records her family record company, the one run now by her sister Sansa. Her brother Jon had produced it.

He always remembers when Arya offered him to be part of the band she wanted to create. She wanted a duet, him on the guitars and backing her vocals. They would write songs together as they had done when they first met at the Kingsroad Street years ago, when he played to get extra cash after his shift at the auto shop that belonged to his foster father.

They spent countless hours singing and playing together in the garage he worked at and lived in, the one owned by his foster father. They bonded through music, sharing their favorites songs, listening to old vinyl records and exploring unknown artists from all over the world. They shared their first kiss in that place, he confessed his feelings for her with a song in that.

They had been playing and jamming together for a while, she was sixteen and he was nineteen. Somehow they had become best friends despite their age difference and then they became a couple. At one point they had gathered a small fan base, people were awed by Arya’s vocals and he was praised by his abilities on the acoustic and electric guitar.

He had agreed, they were going to make their own self-produced record when he was approached by The Brotherhood, a famous rock band looking for a guitar player for their national tour. Somehow they had seen the videos he had uploaded of him playing and looked for him.

He was excited when The Brotherhood approached him, recognizing his talent. He imagined himself recording with a band, playing at big arenas in front of thousands of people and he had agreed to become part of the band. He had hoped Arya would understand that this was his chance to be somebody. He hadn’t realized he was already somebody in her eyes.

At the time he thought that if he could gain fame on his own, become a respected guitarist he could be worthy of being in the same band as Arya Stark. She was music royalty as the daughter of legendary rock singer Eddard Stark, who rose to fame under the wing of record producer Jon Arryn. Her mother was a famous soprano from the Tully family.

All of her siblings were in the music business. Her brother Robb had been a record producer, scouting bands and singers from the north and making them all hit makers and established and recognized artists and musicians for solo or band performances. He had a real talent for scouting touring members, no mattering their backgrounds or origins.

Her older sister Sansa became a pop singer at a young age, though her career had a bump when she started a relationship with a man named Joffrey Lannister who became her manager, after the death of her mother, and started abusing her, making her do too many shows, sexualizing her image and beating her up when she spoke up or refused to do something. Apparently the guy couldn’t handle that she was more famous than him. She put a stop to it a few years ago, she appeared at an award show showing the bruises and the world knew what she was victim off. People from all over the world supported her and Lannister’s career was over. Sansa took charge of Stark Records eventually.

Her brother younger brother Bran became a composer and then a manager because he had a vision of how artists should be properly guided, taken cared off and worked. He understood that artists needed creative outlets and to prevent burnout Bran had an style of not letting them being overworked and he always put their health first.

The youngest one, Rickon was a prodigy drummer, with a hard and wild style that suited many heavy bands. So far he was still in school, but he already had been studio recording with many artists such as Osha and

She had a cousin, Jon, whom she always called her favorite even when he was her cousin in reality. Jon was the first who saw that Arya didn’t want to be a pop star like her sister, nor a classical singer like her mother. Arya wanted to do her own things and he would always support her, like her father did. Jon was a guitarist, like him and Arya’s father. He parted from the Stark group and formed his alternative rock band named The Night’s Watch. He entered a relationship with a folk singer called Ygritte and together they formed his side project named The Wildlings.

Arya was different and similar to her siblings. She had a gift for music, she could master any instrument easily, she had perfect pitch and her voice was something out of this world. Her voice was potent yet soft, she could hit high notes with ease and come down connected and without any trouble. But her voice and style had something so utterly Arya, it was haunting, it had an inherent sorrow and sadness.

Arya’s personality was intense and it showed in her music style, she wouldn’t do pop songs even many had tried to compare her to Sansa. She had been trained, as Sansa, into classical music but never really got into. She would improvise, try different styles and mix things, she was an unpredictable force.

Yet Arya didn’t want to be a solo artist, she wanted to form a band to be free and experiment and she wanted him to be part of it. They were going to be The Wolf & The Bull She wanted them to self-produce, arrange and launch their music using digital platforms so they didn’t have to commit to record company standards. She wanted creative freedom.

And he abandoned her.

He saw her heart breaking when he told her he was leaving with the Brotherhood. She congratulated him on his big shot and left, the coldness in her eyes was unbearable. That was the last time he saw her.

He was in the Riverlands when he heard of the death of her mother and older brother in a car accident as they were on their way to a show. He knew how much she had suffered after her father’s death, most of the songs she wrote and performed in front of him were about her father. He tried contacting her her only to find out that she had disappeared from the face of the earth. It was on the news, Arya Stark, daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark went missing.

That had been six years ago.

Before leaving the brotherhood he discovered an underground artist going by the name of Weasel, singing about being lost in the woods. He recognized her voice immediately even when it was distorted using a vocoder. He knew it was her, Arya’s voice always touched his heart like nothing else had done it. Apparently she released as Weasel soon after he left, that was her earliest alias.

There had been others, he had discovered with only a song or an arrangement released like Underfoot, Nym and ARry. There could probably be more, that was why he was always looking into international radios, digital platforms and underground artists.

After four years and three albums he left The Brotherhood. He met Jon at a show in Dragon Stone and decided to sign as a solo artist under Stark Records and started recording. He had written songs all the time while he was touring, but they never went with The Brotherhood concepts as the songs were too personal.

His life changed while he was part of The Brotherhood.

He found himself playing with recognized artists, being invited to award shows, becoming a celebrity.

He also found himself lost in the partying, the scene, and he engulfed himself in it because only at those times he could almost forget, never quite being able to do so completely. Arya was part of him. It lasted for a while, once all the novelty had worn out he slowed down and tried to face the demons. He didn’t want to numb himself anymore.

After he became known as the hot young guitarist from The Brotherhood people were comparing his looks to Robert Baratheon, a guitar prodigy who had overdosed years ago. He had been part of Eddard Stark earliest band, also rose to fame under Jon Arryn’s wing. The man had been famous for partying, alcohol, drugs and an ostentatious lifestyle. He knew his mother had been a groupie and got pregnant after hooking up with an artist. The resemblance was uncanny, there were side to side pictures of him playing shirtless and old pictures of Robert almost in the same pose and the same angles, the pictures seemed as it was almost the same person.

He looked into it, into her mother’s life and discovered the true about his origins, he was one of the last Baratheons, he discovered an uncle named Renly who encouraged him to take the family name. He now had an uncle Renly who was a model and an uncle Stannis who was a businessman with a flautist background, and a little cousin Shireen he liked to spoil with gifts.

After leaving the band, he was on his own after all this time. He got in touch with Jon, he went to live by the old Baratheon lands that were his right and he wrote songs, arranged music and played. For the first time he had some sort of fun at the studio but it was never as fun as those times he played with Arya at an old garage.

Yet that was how his first solo album had been under the name of Gendry Baratheon.

It had fourteen tracks.

There were songs about, how much he had loved a princess from the north, songs about how he had felt unworthy of her. Songs about being a bastard, songs about trying to forget her. Songs about him regretting leaving her, not being there for her. Songs about how he sold his soul so he could build her the castle she deserved. Songs about how wrong he had been thinking she would care about money, fame and names.

The last song, the one the album was named after, was an instrumental song. He played his guitar, he cried recording it because that song was too much to even put words on it, it was his love song for her. Everything he wanted to say to her that was even too much to put any words into it, everything he should’ve said to her. The song was named Arya.

He remembers recording the session in one take, him shedding tears as he played. Jon was awed, because in that moment he understood how much he had loved his sister. Sansa had been present during that recording, her eyes watered as she wanted her sister to come home at last.

He had only told the Starks that he had known Arya, that they had been friends. That was that they decided to say, so nobody could question nor bother them. They never knew how deep his feelings for her had been until that recording session.

“She will come back, Gendry. One day” Bran had said after the recording session was over.

After weeks of recordings and arrangements the album was done.

The album was a hit.

He toured for a few months along with the Night’s Watch, always sold out.

Rickon was his drummer on tour and Bran managed him.

After six months of touring, on his last show, three days ago, he announced that he was taking a break to go home. He bid farewell to his fans and left the stage. He returned home to a brand new house, one he had built from scratch on the land owned by his birth father. He had gifted his foster father Davos a house by the sea and a boat to live with his wife Marya after he got his first big check. He visited them a few times but always called his father.

The press wondered if he was talking about Arya Stark or about another girl on his record, apparently people never found out they had been friend’s years ago. It was their secret.

It was the first time in years he was going to stay in one place. He needed the break. He had been touring for too much, had given too much of him, of himself. The house he had now used to belong to his real father, he remodeled it to make it simpler yet spacious. It was by the cliffs, with stunning views and away from the madness. He had enough gardens to walk and watch the sun rise. It was close to the city, but had enough privacy. He had built a music studio in it, one that he wasn’t planning on using for a while.

For a reason he made everything hoping she would like it, perhaps he had really tried to build her a castle in some way.

He was outside on the garden, by the cliffs when his phone rang, Jon was calling.

“Gendry, she is back” his blood froze.

“Not like back here, but she has released something!” He had told Jon about Arya’s aliases as soon as he met with him to discuss his album. The press wondered why he decided to go with Stark Records instead of a bigger record company, but it had to be the one connected to her. If she listened to him, to his confession she had to know that he had looked for her somehow.

Jon recognized his sister’s voice at once just like him.

“Look her name up” Jon said before hanging up.

It was a youtube channel, under her own name. She had never released a song under her name before, he had looked.

There were four videos, three songs and a short video of a few seconds. The channel had been created the day before.

The first video in the channel’s playlist was called Featherbed

_My featherbed is deep and soft,___  
and there I'll lay you down,  
I'll dress you all in yellow silk,  
and on your head a crown.  
For you shall be my lady love,  
and I shall be your lord.  
I'll always keep you warm and safe,  
and guard you with my sword.  
And how she smiled and how she laughed,  
the maiden of the tree.  
She spun away and said to him,  
no featherbed for me.  
I'll wear a gown of golden leaves,  
and bind my hair with grass,  
But you can be my forest love,  
and me your forest lass.

It was just her voice and her acoustic guitar, recorded in a room that seemed a bedroom and an improvised music studio.

His heart was beating out of his chest as he recognized the song. She was covering the only hit released by an artists named Tom Sevenstrings. They used to listen it over and over on Davos old vinyl player. It was one of their favorites songs to sing together while playing around.

Why did she release this song?

The second song was named Lost. She talked about losing herself, about becoming no one and forgetting who she was. About feeling herself drowning feelings that she no longer wanted because they were too much to handle, the pain was suffocating and she wanted to forget. She finished singing about finding herself and reclaiming her name.

The last song was named Street, she sang about returning to a place where her happiest memories had been; a street where she was free to be herself and where she could smile. A street where she would play guitar and sing with a bull headed boy, a street where she hoped to meet him again tomorrow and sing like the old times.

The last video was seemed recorded on a cellphone, one couldn’t see her, she was walking as she said “A girl is Arya Stark and she is going home”.

His phone started buzzing with mentions on social media, people wondering if Arya Stark sudden reappearance had something to do with him. Jon and Sansa texting him to find out what street Arya was talking about.

Bran texted him to bring his guitar to their reunion. Rickon texted telling him to go at once.

He was off immediately, just picking up his acoustic guitar, hoping onto his motorcycle and making his way to Kingsroad street. He didn’t care where he parked his bike, he just took of his helmet and saw her on the street, she was playing one of the songs they had written ages ago.

He couldn’t move.

She was there.

Her hair was longer, braided to the side loosely. She used to wear it short, almost like a boy. He noticed she seemed taller, she could probably reach his collarbone now. She was wearing faded jeans and just a crop top. At her feet was her guitar case open and ready to welcome coins.

Her voice was the same, lovely and able to touch and tear his soul apart.

He never thought he’d have a chance again, but here she was.

She looked even more beautiful than in his memories.

She was finishing her song, people starting to gather around her when she noticed him. Their eyes met and they were once again a pair of teenagers. He felt hit with memories, feelings and the pass of time. Her eyes were telling him something, she was giving him another chance.

She began playing the notes of an old song they used to sing, one of his. He tried to remember the notes but he wasn’t sure he could do the song justice, he remembered the lyrics, though.

He began singing, backing her up as she wanted.

He started walking towards her, to sing next to her as she had wanted years ago and she smiled. This felt right, this was how it should’ve been. As if her presence was fueling the memories, he began remembering the chords of the songs they were playing. He was having fun, feeling more involved in his music than he had been in ages.

They went on, old songs singing as if they were in the garage. People were gathering, some were filming as Arya Stark and Gendry Baratheon were making an improvised show in the middle of the street. He heard people whispering, he saw press starting to gather.

He hadn’t had so much fun playing in years. IT was all because of her.

It was when they were finished singing and old song called The Rabbit when he turned to look at her.

“Come with me, please” he offered, he prayed she wouldn’t leave him as he had done.

“Let’s go” she took his hand.

They left, he gifted his guitar to a little girl who had been listening to them. Arya hanged her guitar to her back and sat in the back of his motorbike. He drove to his house, he wanted to take her to the cliffs, he wanted to know her story. He wanted her to forgive him.

He didn’t really know what to do once he parked the bike.

“This your house?” she asked after she had hoped off the bike.

“It used to be my father’s, now it is mine” he answered as he told her to follow him. She entered and looked around as he made his way to the back, to the gardens.

“This is impressive” she said as she looked at the ocean.

“Arya, where have you been?” he asked as he stood next to her. They needed to talk but he wasn’t sure how to approach it.

“Many places” her voice had changed a bit, gotten a little bit lower but it was natural as she was no longer a teenager. Arya was a woman now; the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

“Arya, I am sor…”

“I went to see your first gig” he was speechless.

“Your first one as an official member of The Brotherhood” he had been a touring member for six months of the tour until he was officially announced as a permanent addition to the band “Once I saw you upstage I knew you had made the right choice. I should’ve supported you, but I didn’t”

“No! I should’ve stayed with you, go along with what he had talked about but I was…”

“We can’t change the past” she was looking at him “it was a childhood dream. You were too good to be caged as an indie artist with me, thinking back we were doomed to fail probably. You needed to be part of a band as I needed to explore. I have never heard someone play as good as you, you know? I still haven’t. I followed your career, I’m proud of you, Gendry” her eyes were honest and he couldn’t speak “I saw you playing at awards shows and charity events. You are even more impressive now on stage than before”

“Arya…”

“When I saw you play live I wanted to become a better artist, a better singer so one day we could play together and I could be up the part”

“What are you saying? Arya, you singing is something out of this world! I, I always looked for you after you disappeared as Nan, The Ghost of Harrenhall and as No One”. He saw her eyes open wide at the mention of her personas.

“How did you…”

“It was an accident, really. I always look for artists from all over the world, like you taught me and one day I came across Nan and I recognized your voice. I looked you up, I found more”

“How many?”

“Nan, Weasel, The Ghost of Harrenhal, Underfoot, Cat of the Canals, Nym and ARry” he said, she looked impressed “Are there more? I know you were in a band, never quite liked that one to be honest”

“Neither did I. You never heard of Mercy?” he chuckled shaking his head, of course there were more “She was a classical singer”

“I wasn’t expecting that”

“I was in Pentos when I did that, on a theater”

“You were in Pentos? Where else have you been?” he wanted to know it all. It was getting colder; they had moved on into his kitchen where he was preparing coffee for them.

“Many places. I spent a while in Bravos, I was No One there. I never thought someone would recognize me, nor look into my personas”.

“I did”

“As I have all The Brotherhoods albums with you in it” he couldn’t help the blush that showed in him.

“I was surprised when you left them”

“Why?”

“You looked comfortable with them”

“I was but I wasn’t having fun anymore. We are still friends and I can come back when I want to but I wanted to do different things”

“Your solo” Arya declared as she walked to his living room and sat on his sofa, with a coffee mug in her hands and at some points she had gotten rid of her shoes. She looked comfortable, as if she had been in this house all along, as if she belonged here.

“Yes” he followed her, sitting next to her.

“I heard the news of your solo adventure. I was surprised when I saw my name and I cried when I heard my song”.

“I cried when I recorded it”.

“Do you mean it?” Arya left the mug on the table as she shifted to look at him. Her eyes were intense but he was lost looking into them.

“Every word, every note” he whispered and she moved closer.

“You never heard of She Wolf?” she asked, shifting and he shook his head “She was one of the first ones, she sang about a Bull” he gasped in surprise as she moved to straddle him. He dropped his coffee mug to the floor and he didn’t care.

Arya cupped his face “She sang about missing him”. His hands went to hold her hips. Arya’s eyes were intense and he felt like melting, his blood running faster and hot inside of him “She sang about loving him”. She was closing the distance between them, her face a few inches from his. His eyes drifted to her lips for a second before returning to her eyes. They were demanding.

“Say it” she whispered against him. He was absolutely sure what Arya wanted him to say, he had waited six years to say those words to his face.

“I love you” he had just finished saying it when she kissed him.

He was awoken by the sound of a guitar playing and Arya humming softly. He was alone in bed as Arya was sitting on the small couch in his bedroom, naked and playing the guitar, stopping occasionally to write something on a paper. She was composing.

“You kept my guitar” he heard her say as he sat on the bed, the sheets barely covering him but he didn’t care. She was using the old acoustic guitar she had used years ago, with Nymeria drawn into it.

“I did” he answered.

“I came up with something while you were sleeping” she turned to look at him.

“Can I hear it?” he asked as he rubbed his eye “Or will it be in one of your albums?”

“Not yet, I don’t have a chorus” she was always picky about letting him hear her songs “And I don’t want to be someone else I want to be free. You know, I never quite enjoyed writing songs as I did when we were at the garage. It was the more freedom I ever felt, the most fun I had”.

He chuckled softly “Me neither. Not with the brotherhood, not by myself and not with your brother. I never had as much fun playing as I did when I was with you. It was simple, easy and I miss it”

“We can play again, that song seems like it is made for a duet” she smiled “I think we can do it this time. We grew and discovered more who we wanted to be and do” She raised herself, stretched as she walked to him. He wished he had his guitar now, to compose something that could describe how beautiful she was.

“Would this be the official debut of The Wolf & The Bull?” she laughed and he knew that being with her was better than anything, than the live shows, the awards, the fame and everything.

“I think it would be more like a comeback. The reunion of an old group that went separate ways and came back to each other. We could record the old songs we wrote, I kept them. We could make new ones”

She was lying on top of him now, her finger drawing music notes on his skin.

“We could go to the studio tomorrow and start recording, have Jon produce it”

“Or we can stay here, write and play to our hearts content and record it. I have my own studio here” she lifted to look at him, smirking.

“I think I’d like that”

He kissed her again. He felt like writing a hundred love songs, he felt like playing his guitar on hours on end so he could hear Arya sing.

After all this time, reunited with her, he felt happy.

**Author's Note:**

> I made it to day three and it ended up being awfully long.
> 
> I have no idea where all of this comes from, I just started and went along with it nonstop. I hope you enjoy this. Please, read and comment if you like. Reading your comments make me very happy.
> 
> I hope i can come up with something to day four.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr as blue-nebulae.


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